Stuff that works: Netgear Arlo Security Camera

by Volker Weber

A video posted by Volker Weber (@volkerweber) on

Almost five months ago I wrote my first impressions about the Netgear Arlo camera. Now I can say that this thing works a treat. It's battery-driven, so it does not need a cable. I am still on my first set of batteries. You just need to put in a single screw and attach the camera to the mount. There is an access point you connect to your network, and that will service multiple cameras. As soon as the camera triggers an alert, I get a push message. That is so fast, that the alert often comes before somebody even pushes the door bell. And it records a short video of what is going on. The footage above is from a friends house, in the middle of the night. Somebody is checking out whether there is something he could quickly grab and take away.

A video posted by Volker Weber (@volkerweber) on

The first video shows a burglar that is checking out if there is anything he could quickly grab. In the middle of the night, when it was pitch dark. Arlo uses infrared light at night. The second video shows a neighbor's dog who is checking on our dog.

I could probably make room for more of those cameras.

Comments

Thanks. Eventually, my house will look just like yours with all the same gadgetry. :-D

Amy Blumenfield, 2016-02-12

All I can say is that we are going to have a LOT of these cameras in our neighborhood. And we have plenty of dogs that are faster than burglars. ;-)

Volker Weber, 2016-02-12

Do you have experience regarding limits in reach/distance of the wireless connection to share as well? Sounds very interesting so far, but for multiple eyes I would want or rather need to place them multitudes of ten meters away from the base station - further than I get with usual WiFi (2,4GHz).

Natanael Mignon , 2016-02-12

I bought one of these after you wrote about it and have been very happy with the results.

Regarding the WiFi aspect though, the range is not bad but the location of the base station is critical. It has to be hard wired to the router (ethernet cable) so for most people will have to live next to their router unless they have some means of providing an ethernet connection elsewhere such as via a powerline adapter.

I did originally have mine some distance away from the router on a powerline adapter, but one of the cameras only worked intermittently as the signal was too weak so I had to move it back next to the router.

The Arlo base station (which only has 2.4 GHz WiFi) switches to use the same channel as the router when placed in close proximity to it. This is by design apparently although this causes issues with the non-Arlo WiFi network - some connections are unstable and/or slow.

Best solution is to place the Arlo base station in a location where all cameras get decent signal strength and at a distance from any other WiFi router in use, if necessary using a long ethernet cable, powerline adapters or some other solution to the provision of ethernet connectivity.

Chris Linfoot, 2016-02-12

Did I get this right? Batteries last five months..? Outside?

Jens Nullmeyer, 2016-02-13

No, you did not. It lasted ME five months. This is a motion sensor that only records when it senses motion. There is very little motion at my door, so it has lasted five months so far, and it still does.

Volker Weber, 2016-02-13

Can the recordings be stored locally on a NAS ?
Thanks.

Ludwig Deruyck, 2016-02-13

Looks I need to amend my FAQ. Short answer: no. Long answer: sigh.

Volker Weber , 2016-02-13

Will order two NOW. Very convincing, thanks!

Ingo Seifert, 2016-02-13

@vowe I love your FAQ btw, every time a good read. my favorite part is about the hourly rate.

Samuel Orsenne, 2016-02-13

I have 2 of these cameras and I've been going since August on the same batteries. Very satisfied so far.

Ken Bisconti, 2016-02-15

Thanks Volker. I picked up 3 of these & they were easy to set up & are working really well. Another Volker special!

Amy Blumenfield, 2016-02-18

I like that. ;-)

Volker Weber , 2016-02-18

Falls das jemand noch lesen sollte, bei uns in der Schweiz gibts grad einen tollen Deal auf die Version mit 4 Kameras: https://www.digitec.ch/de/s1/product/netgear-arlo-set-mit-4x-kamera-heimautomatisierung-5628184
Gekauft.

Chris Frei, 2016-03-23

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